By the time the last person sat down at the table, Shawn had already been eating for a while.
Quite a while.
He'd started with the chicken. Then moved on to a bread that had something sweet inside. Then a fruit he didn't recognize but that tasted incredible. Then another portion of chicken. Then something that looked like a stew. Then more bread.
And the wine.
The wine was something else entirely.
'This...' thought Shawn, taking another long sip from his goblet, 'is the best wine I have ever had in my life!'
It wasn't an exaggeration.
Shawn was no wine expert. His experience with alcohol was limited to cheap beers bought on sale and a five-dollar bottle of wine he'd opened one Christmas solely because it was discounted.
But this, what he was drinking now, was something else completely.
It was smooth.
It was sweet without being cloying.
It went down effortlessly and left a taste that made him want more.
So he had more.
And ate more.
And the strange thing was that he wasn't getting full.
Shawn pressed his left hand against his stomach while chewing with his right.
Flat.
Completely flat.
'This doesn't make any sense...' he thought, looking at the amount of food he'd consumed. 'Normally a burger and a soda keeps me going for hours of gaming without any issue. I've been eating like there's no tomorrow and I feel absolutely nothing.'
No bloating, no heaviness, not the slightest sign that he'd put the equivalent of three full meals into his body in under half an hour.
'Does this body work differently?' thought Shawn, grabbing another piece of bread. 'Or is this a God thing?'
Shawn had no answer.
But the food was still good.
So he kept eating.
Iris watched him out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing.
She just looked at him with that expression Shawn still hadn't quite figured out how to classify, and every so often dropped her gaze to her own goblet without touching it.
The rest of the table was a very different picture.
Nobody had touched anything.
Not the food. Not the wine. Not the bread. Not the fruit. Nothing.
Everyone was seated with their hands on the table or in their laps, backs straight and expressions controlled, looking ahead or looking at the queen or, in several cases, looking at Shawn with a range of expressions that ran from curiosity to something that looked a lot like indignation.
The women especially.
Shawn noticed that several of the noblewomen seated at the table watched him with a particular intensity every time he grabbed food with his hands or wiped his fingers on the napkin in a less than graceful manner.
'What?' thought Shawn, meeting one of their gazes for a second before biting into another piece of meat.
The noblewoman looked away immediately.
Shawn kept eating.
Iris stood up.
The sound of her chair moving brought the entire hall to complete silence.
The musicians stopped playing. The maids froze. The knights standing around the perimeter straightened their posture.
Iris brought her hands together once.
A single sharp clap that rang through the whole room.
"I thank you all for answering my summons at this hour..." said Iris, her voice clear and carrying without needing to rise in volume. "And I thank the staff for their excellent work in preparing all of this in so little time."
Total silence.
Everyone watched her.
"I have heard," Iris continued, her tone dropping half a degree, "what some of you have been doing during my absence."
No one moved.
"The decisions you have made. The moves you have taken. The conversations you have had..."
Iris paused.
Several of those present held their expressions neutral, but Shawn, close enough to catch details, noticed at least two people swallow hard.
"We will discuss that at another time," said Iris, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Today we are here for something different."
Shawn was listening to the speech with half an ear.
The other half was focused on the portion of pork on his plate.
'Oh my God,' thought Shawn, bringing a piece to his mouth.
The flavor filled his entire mouth.
It was juicy, tender, with a hint of something he couldn't identify but that made him want to close his eyes.
'This is incredible. This is the best thing I've eaten in this world. This is the best thing I've eaten in any world!'
Shawn chewed enthusiastically and a little juice slipped from the corner of his mouth, which he wiped with the back of his hand.
From across the table, a noblewoman with her hair pulled back in a tight bun looked at him with an expression that conveyed deep personal suffering.
Another noblewoman, two seats further down, closed her eyes for a moment as if gathering her strength.
Several of the men at the table exchanged discreet glances among themselves.
Shawn couldn't hear what they were thinking, but if he could have, he would have heard variations on the same question:
'What is that girl to the queen that she isn't saying a single word to her?'
Because that was what made no sense.
The queen was right there. Watching everything. Watching this unknown girl eat with her hands, get food on her face, drink wine without stopping, and chew in a way that in any other context would have resulted in immediate punishment.
And she said nothing.
And no one else dared say anything either, because the only person with the authority to correct someone in the queen's presence was the queen herself.
And the queen wasn't correcting.
Which meant something.
Iris continued her speech.
Shawn continued eating.
And then Shawn looked at his goblet.
Empty.
Completely empty, so he looked to his right and saw a young noblewoman seated beside him, with a full goblet of wine she hadn't touched.
Shawn leaned toward her.
"Hey," Shawn tried to whisper, "are you gonna drink tha—"
The cough came out before he could finish the sentence.
It was short but loud, and Iris's speech stopped.
The entire hall turned toward Shawn.
Everyone.
Every person seated at the table. Every maid pressed against the wall. Every knight standing at the perimeter. The musicians. The man in the green robe. Isolde.
And even Iris.
All of them looking at Shawn.
Shawn looked back at them.
The wine had gone to his head a while ago.
He wasn't completely drunk, but he was drunk enough that the part of his brain that would normally tell him he was in a tense situation and needed to behave was running at half capacity.
Shawn looked at all those serious faces staring at him.
And he laughed.
It was a short, involuntary laugh, the kind that slips out when something strikes you as funny and you can't help it.
The silence that followed was the heaviest Shawn had experienced in this world.
Several people at the table opened their eyes slightly wider than normal.
The man in the green robe, Aris, raised both eyebrows for the first time.
Two noblewomen exchanged a glance that said clearly:
'She's dead.'
Iris looked at Shawn.
Shawn looked back at her with a smile that still had traces of laughter in it.
Iris looked at one of the nearby maids.
"Bring more wine," she said, in a completely normal tone.
The maid nodded and disappeared.
Then Iris looked at the noblewoman seated beside Shawn. The girl with the full goblet.
"Give her yours," said Iris, gesturing toward Shawn. "They'll bring you another."
The noblewoman opened her mouth, then quickly closed it. She picked up her goblet with both hands, which were trembling slightly, and held it out to Shawn.
"Thanks," said Shawn, taking the goblet with one hand and having a long sip.
Iris watched him drink.
Isolde did too.
Isolde, who had maintained impeccable composure throughout the entire banquet, pressed her lips together.
"Excuse me..." said Isolde, looking at Shawn with a polite smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Could you please keep quiet, behave yourself, and show some respect for Her Majes—"
"Who gave you permission to speak?" said Iris.
Isolde stopped mid-sentence.
Her polite smile froze.
"Your Majesty..." said Isolde, turning toward Iris with a controlled movement, "that girl was being disrespectful toward you. I was only trying to—"
"Who gave you permission to speak?"
The same question.
The same tone.
Isolde closed her mouth.
"My apologies, Your Majesty," she said, lowering her head.
Iris held her gaze for one more second.
Then she looked at the rest of the table.
"Getting to the point..." said Iris, in a tone that signaled the diplomatic portion of the speech was over, "and to the most important matter."
Iris gestured toward Shawn.
Shawn, who was mid-sip, stopped with the goblet still at his lips.
"The person you see here," said Iris, "is the person who is healing me."
Silence.
"If any of you bothers her, you will be dismissed."
A pause.
"And should any harm come to her..." Iris continued, her voice not rising in volume but somehow feeling heavier, "or should she disappear, I will personally kill anyone I consider even remotely suspicious."